1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates generally to the controlling of climate conditions in multiple zones of a building. In one embodiment of the invention, a climate conditioning to be provided to a first zone in the multiple zones of the building is determined based at least in part on a priority which is assigned to the first zone.
2. Background Art
Existing climate control systems provide various combinations of climate conditioning both to commercial and to residential structures. For example, some existing climate control systems keep different rooms at or near respective pre-set desired temperatures by providing the rooms with respective levels of air conditioning. Similarly, different rates of heated air delivered from a forced air furnace may be provided to different rooms based on their respective pre-set desired temperatures. Some of these existing climate control systems also allow users to group a number of pre-set desired temperatures into one or more modes to automate the adjusting of climate preferences for various rooms at one time. For example, when returning from a vacation back to regular occupancy of a home, a user can deactivate an energy saving mode in favor of a normal occupancy mode, thereby changing numerous desired temperature settings at one time from one location.
In designing climate control systems and equipment, technicians typically take into account such factors as the size of the structure being conditioned, the building materials and insulation standards used, its orientation relative to the sun & prevailing winds, the local climate, etc. In the past, prevailing wisdom in the construction community tended to over-size conditioning equipment—closer to the peek average load on the structure than the nominal load—to reduce the possibility that the thermodynamic load can ever get ahead of the equipment so that a comfortable environment cannot be maintained. However, over-sized climate control systems tend to be more expensive to install and run, they tend to work at operating points which are less efficient and/or more damaging to component parts, and they tend to provide a loud or otherwise noticeable ‘blast’ of conditioning when turning on.
Under more ideal design practice, equipment is usually sized relative to a “nominal load”, whereby a level of output being made available when the conditioning equipment is running should reasonably approximate the average conditioning energy needed by the structure over the entire seasonal year. Since conditioning equipment typically provides very few discrete levels of conditioning capacity, control may be provided by time-cycling, wherein equipment is turned on for a period of time, and then turned off for a period of time. The reduced average energy delivered over time approximates the average load needed in the house.
At any given time, various climate conditioning requirements of individual rooms of a building determine an aggregate climate conditioning load carried by a climate control system. This aggregate load can change significantly over time as environmental conditions, space utilization and occupancy and target conditioning objectives change. Consequently, while a climate control system of a structure should ideally rely on more reasonably-sized equipment designed for nominal loads, it often does not. When the energy load on the structure is above average, reasonably-sized equipment may not be able to keep up with the energy requirements of the conditioned space. The equipment will run continuously or nearly continuously and may not be able to sustain the desired environmental conditions of the building at all times. This often results in increased wear and tear on parts, higher energy bills, and/or an inability to bring or maintain rooms within their desired temperature ranges.